As an entrepreneur, product designer and product manager for people management and predictive analytics software, I have seen a number of problems related to creating useful products, and getting things done. I decided to keep track of some common scenarios. All views are mine. Not my employers'.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Almost every SAP customer I work with uses multiple integration methods and integration technologies. I expect this to be the reality for years to come.

I saw this presentation by a customer who uses SAP, Salesforce.com and Workday. I found it useful to listen to the experience of a customer who has integrated OnPremise solutions and multiple cloud solutions from multiple vendors. The solution architect who presents talks extensively about SAP NetWeaver PI and Dell Boomi. I want to point out that both technologies are used to integrate SAP and SuccessFactors.

The solution architect says that when it comes to integrating with SAP, SAP NetWeaver PI works really well. He also talks about how SAP NetWeaver PI and SAP ABAP developers can contribute and support an integration using Dell Boomi.

Learning Curve for a cloud integration platform
He talks about the learning curve for Dell Boomi and the kind of background required for someone to become a Dell Boomi developer.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

My colleague Bryan Hart, who is responsible for partner enablement curriculum is using the SAP HCM Partner Exchange Jam group to announce and promote the Employee Central Payroll and integration training scheduled for June 25th and June 26th 2013.

I noticed an interesting behavior in Jam as soon as he did that. A few partner colleagues created a task in the context of that update for themselves. Some people managers created a task and assigned it to other colleagues in the group to remind them to attend the training session.

A good example of collaboration enabled in context. It is also a great example of an instructor led event enabled via collaboration even before the event occurs. As I mentioned in earlier posts, informal learning and collaboration enabling formal learning are some of the most important use cases for SAP Jam. I recommend SAP Jam to any customer considering SuccessFactors Learning. They go well together.

Friday, June 07, 2013

I strive to design enterprise applications mainly for the people who use them rather than just for the administrators who run them or the executives who buy them. That is one of the reasons why I am very optimistic about the SAP Fiori set of HCM applications. I added a scene in my social and mobile innovations story and created a trailer to convey the importance of making the most commonly used applications simple to use and make them available from any device anywhere.

Real life use cases may not always be to take the day off and go for a picnic. It might be to take the day off and do some plumbing work or spend time with family. What ever the reason, the leave request app will be there when that personal decision is made and will help make life a bit easier for employees.

Thursday, June 06, 2013

This is the third in a series of posts where I want to recommend sessions to go to and people to meet at HR Insider 2013 in Amsterdam. Rather than write a generic guide, I decided to write multiple posts for audiences with different purposes. What is more valuable than getting the facts is getting to meet the people who create, market and influence the products you see. Meet them and follow them on Twitter. Many of them share information about their products on Twitter.

Your Profile
You are an SAP ERP HCM customer or partner who has heard about SuccessFactors solutions, but did not know how SAP customers can buy them, implement them and integrate them with SAP HCM. You would like to get a high level idea and connect with the SAP and SuccessFactors experts in Europe who can help you with resources and answer you questions. If this sounds like you, please go to the following sessions and meet the following people.

I was involved in the testing of SAP Travel OnDemand some time ago. I have started using it to fill my expense reports. It has turned out to be a very easy to use product. A lot more user friendly and intuitive than the ones I have used before, including other cloud based expense reporting products.

I like the simple things like attaching receipts to expenses item by item, the ability to recognize my expenses types via icons, and the ability to itemize my Hotel expense without having to type multiple items. Saved me at least 30 minutes when I did it today. We are getting there.

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

I am working on adding Fiori HCM Apps to my session on Social and Mobile innovations in SAP and SuccessFactors at HR Insider Amsterdam next week. My colleagues mentioned that there are not many demos of Fiori Apps as they appear on a smart phone. Sapphire demos were from the desktop and iPad. I decided to add the popular leave request app to my story. Here are some of the screen shots from the app as it appears in a smart phone. I am also working on creating these as offline demos so that I can share them with colleagues, partners and even customers when they need it. If you are interested, please leave a comment and I might be able to share them with you.

The important thing to note is that the same HTML5 application can be viewed from a desktop, tablet or mobile device of any kind and the apps will adjust accordingly. I tested this our personally in multiple display screens and it works really well.

My colleague Gertrud Beisel and Jean-Bernard Rolland will be talking about SAP Fiori HR apps at HR Insider in Amsterdam. Reach out to them if you are there to ask them about how SAP Fiori will work for SAP ERP HCM OnPremise customers.

Sunday, June 02, 2013

There are over 12,000 SAP ERP HCM customers. Only about 620 of them are using SuccessFactors talent management applications today. I got a few questions from SAP HCM customers about how they can start using SAP Jam, even though they have not started using SuccessFactors for talent management yet.

In the video below I explain, how that might work for customers.

My colleague Bianka Woelke who designed integrations between SAP ERP HCM and SuccessFactors created a demo and showed it at ASUG last month. Giovanna Enea, my colleague and product manager for SAP Jam has a session at HR Insider Amsterdam. She will talk about this and other ways Jam can be used for talent management.